Teahouse
by Kat36
Summary: (Completed) Before he became Seijuro Hiko the 13th, he was an apprentice named Niitsu. And while still a young apprentice, he meets a pretty geisha who will change at least one part of his life.
1. Chapter 1

This is the first of several fanfics I've written dealing with my own character, Hikaru, and her long and somewhat rocky love affair with Seijuro Hiko. Hikaru and most of the other characters are my own creations. Seijuro Hiko is not, of course, so consider the usual disclaimers said. RK fans please note that this story is set in 1850, when Hiko is only 15 and not even Hiko yet. None of the other canon characters have even been born yet, so don't look for them here. If Hikaru meets with readers' approval, Kenshin will appear in later stories, but I freely admit that, as much as I _love_ the show, my obsession is Hiko.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *

The small knot of men just inside the door of the private room greeted Seijuro Hiko with correct bows – he was respected but not particularly liked – and looked past him at the young man who followed him in. "Master Hiko, is that your apprentice?" one asked. "He's grown since we last saw him."

"That's because he eats enough for four people. I have to find work just to feed him."

This mild joke was greeted with smiles. Another man asked, "Is it true he fought Zeshin Noguchi and killed him, all by himself?"

"He did, Iwasaki-san. Noguchi was nothing, but the boy needed the exercise, so I allowed it."

"You're hard on him. I'm impressed." He turned to the apprentice, Kakunoshin Niitsu. "But why Noguchi? I know he deserved to die, but I heard you actually sought him out."

Niitsu replied at once, "That province is extremely unstable at this time, honored sir. The local officials have little control. Allowing Noguchi and his bandits to plunder there would have been like kicking the coals of a fire onto tatami."

Iwasaki nodded, agreeing. However, Master Hiko gave his apprentice a look that would have felled an ox. "I don't recall giving you permission to speak."

Niitsu at once bowed and apologized. Although in the seven years he'd been apprentice to Master Hiko, he had grown to be half a head taller and perhaps 50 pounds heavier than his master, size and weight were of little matter in their relationship. He still had much to learn about the Hiten Mitsurugi, and, on a more practical level, Master Hiko could beat him black and blue without breaking a sweat. He was proud of his accomplishments, but he never grew proud enough to show anything but the deepest respect to his Master.

"Go outside," Hiko ordered. "It's a nice night. Look at the moon."

Niitsu did as he was told, but he didn't go far. He was still close enough to hear when Iwasaki chided Hiko, "You're too hard on that boy. He's a good apprentice." He was also close enough to hear Master Hiko respond, "He's the most promising apprentice I've ever had. But his head gets too big and he stops learning. It's bad for his discipline to show him so much regard, Iwasaki-san."

Grinning, Niitsu let himself out the side door and onto the street before Hiko caught him eavesdropping. He had been meant to hear that – Master Hiko never did anything by accident – but after seven years, he also knew when to get out of reach. Feeling far too cocky to stand still, he turned right to follow the wall around to the back of the teahouse, knowing there was a small park where he could stretch his legs. At fifteen years old, and very fit, he was as full of energy as he was of confidence. He wasn't surprised that Hiko named him his most promising apprentice, only that the Master would actually say it aloud. He was absolutely certain that, unlike Master Hiko's previous apprentices, he would eventually learn the Ku-zu-ryu-sen and the mysterious "final attack" and become a Master himself. No number of setbacks and insults could shake his conviction. He'd never yet failed at anything he'd tried, and the Hiten Mitsurugi succession technique would be no different.

The teahouse wall on his right dropped off from a stockade to a stone wall no higher than his chest, and over it he could see the gardens. One area, almost at the very end, was lit with paper lanterns, and he wondered who could be out there. The gardens were rarely used in the night. He was only mildly curious and wouldn't have gone out of his way to find out, but since he was passing it anyway, he took a look.

Hikaru would later call that look "fate," or "destiny," but he never would. Geishas were superstitious, and he wasn't. It was simple coincidence and curiosity, and nothing more. However, he did look, and while he would have denied the idea that it changed his life, it did change one aspect of it drastically.

A woman was there, a geisha, alone beside a tiny tea table, humming softly to herself, and she was so beautiful that, without realizing it, he stopped to stare at her. Even under the traditional white make-up that could conceal as much as it decorated, her features were lovely, and her wide mouth needed no exaggeration for the lower lip to pout invitingly. She was very tall for a woman, slender and supple, her kimono fitting perfectly, smoothly to her shape, rich in shades of purple with a dragon winding along the length, its outline highlighted with silver thread. The ornaments in her elaborately dressed hair sparkled in the light of the lamps. She was standing, poised, with a wisteria blossom cupped in one hand, the fingers of the other hand tracing the edge of the flower. Even just humming, her voice was low and sweetly musical.

He couldn't stop staring at her, and at the same time was angry with himself for being so captivated. This was a teahouse girl, nothing more, and he was a future Master of the Hiten Mitsurugi style. She should be of no interest to him. _She'll probably pluck that blossom and tuck it in her obi or her hair,_ he thought, unconsciously wishing she'd do something like that, something so obviously female and silly that she wouldn't seem magical to him and he could walk away.

She leaned her face to the blossom, let it touch her cheek, then opened her hand and released it as she might have released a small wild bird. Smiling in some private happiness, she turned and saw him, leaning there on the wall. After a blink of surprise, she smiled again, mostly with her eyes, which were large and dark and as soft as the wisteria petals. "Hello." She bowed, then tilted her head, studying him. "Don't I know you?"

"No." He straightened, ready to back away. He felt odd inside, as if he were hollow, and it was an unpleasant sensation.

She gestured toward the tea table. "Would you like some tea? Or sake, perhaps?"

Had she left it at tea, he might have been able to leave. But he dearly loved sake, a taste he'd developed as a child. Since becoming an apprentice, he'd had it exactly twice, both times when he'd done some attack move so exceptionally well that he'd broken through his Master's guard. The idea of drinking teahouse sake, which was always the best, held him there as if nailed. But he knew it was useless even dreaming about it. He had no money at all, never mind what it would cost to drink sake at a teahouse with what must be one of their best geisha.

He'd always been one to attack sooner than defend, and she'd set him so off-stride that he spoke with deliberate rudeness to counteract her effect on him, folding his arms on his chest and telling her straight out that he had no money.

"I didn't ask you for money," she said in that sweet, calm voice.

This made him even more surly. "Besides, it would have to be excellent sake for me to waste my time with a woman like you. You're not even all that pretty."

"You don't think I'm pretty?"

"Not at all." It was one of the biggest lies he'd ever told in a lifetime which, although short, had known many lies.

"Then you don't want me to flirt with you or entertain you?"

"It would be a waste of your time and mine."

He was so sure she would be angry that her delighted laughter took him entirely by surprise. "Well, how wonderful. I am trying to relax a little, you see. Will you come and drink sake with me, and we will just talk? Or be silent, if you wish. It is _very_ good sake," she added roguishly.

He knew he should get away. Fast. He had no business here, and if Master Hiko found out, it was going to be painful. On the other hand, there was good sake, a pleasant garden, and a teahouse woman who was willing to share them for nothing. He placed one hand on the wall and vaulted over.

She disappeared for a few moments, returning with the sake and two translucent porcelain cups to drink it from. Kneeling across from him, meeting his still-hostile stare with softly smiling eyes, she poured for them both with the exquisite grace that he'd seen the girls use inside the teahouse, and that irritated him. Maybe she did it out of habit. He didn't know. All he knew was that everything about her made him feel too big, clumsy as an ox, badly dressed, unwashed, and provincially gauche. He would have given anything at that moment to be more like Iwasaki-san, who was slender, sophisticated and elegant, and he hated himself for that wish, so therefore he was angry at her. Knowing this to be unfair only made him more angry. Yet, although he was glaring at her as if she were an enemy, she went on with her little ritual as if she didn't notice, handing him his cup in both of her delicate hands, her lips curved in a slight, inviting smile. "I'm Hikaru," she said. "What should I call you?"

"I don't give my name to teahouse women." He drank some of the sake. She was right. It was excellent sake, far better than any he'd ever tasted before.

She put the knuckles of one hand against her lips, studying him. "Now that I think on it, I believe I know your name. You came here with Master Hiko, didn't you?" He nodded curtly, and she said, "Then I do know your name. It's _baka deshi_." He was so astonished at her impertinence that his mask dropped, and she laughed delightedly. "However, I won't call you that, but Deshi-san."

He could have snapped her long slender neck with one hand. He could have gotten her in trouble simply by telling someone in the teahouse that she was entertaining him without being paid. Yet she sat there and _laughed_ at him. Furthermore, the way she did it, he couldn't help but want to laugh with her. Instead he growled, "It's Niitsu. Kakunoshin Niitsu."

"We make progress. What have I done to you to make you scowl at me so?"

That was impossible to explain. He said, "I don't trust you."

"Do you mean all this?" with a wave at the tea table and the sake. "Don't you believe that women get bored with all the parties and simply want to sit and be themselves for a while?"

"I hadn't thought about it." Why in the world would he?

"You offered me that opportunity, so this is just a small repayment. I heard inside that you and Master Hiko came from Yokodo. Is the situation there as bad as they say?"

"I don't know. What do they say?"

She took a sip of sake and considered for a moment. "Of course, in Edo, word comes slowly from so far away, even to the teahouses. But it's said that the governor is weak, and has let slip the management of the area into greedy hands. The people are oppressed, and have no one to aid them. That's the nature of human government," she added with a shrug of one shoulder, "but rumor also says that the only reason Governor Hashimoto has not been deposed and possibly assassinated is that his lieutenants don't want to lose their own power, and so protect him. Is this what you saw when you were there?"

"Why do you wonder about such things?"

"I have never been out of Edo. I'm curious about the rest of the world, and everything about it interests me."

"You should keep your mind on beauty, and forget about Yokodo and places like that." Her eyes went round, and he said bluntly, "My Master doesn't trust the daimyo. He believes he waits only for a chance to assassinate Hashimoto, blame it on the local citizens, and initiate a bloodbath that will give his bored soldiers something to do and enrich him into the bargain. So you see what I mean?"

He hadn't shocked her. "How would it enrich him?"

"Slain peasants mean empty farms, which then revert to the daimyo. And in the confusion of battle, many valuable things get lost or confiscated, and these, too, go to the daimyo. My Master believes the Noguchigumi were brought in by the daimyo and paid to begin trouble, which is why we killed them."

"_Killed_ them? Those bandits? You killed them all?"

"My Master and I did."

"Then who do you work for? Obviously not the shogunate. No, don't scowl at me again like that! Have pity on an ignorant woman."

"The sword of the Hiten Mitsurugi style is raised in defense of the helpless, but it is used without loyalty to other men or ideals, only to the principles of Hiten Mitsurugi."

She refilled his cup. "That sounds noble, but does it work in practice as well as in theory?"

Really, she had an extraordinary mind for a woman. "Have your rumor-mongers told you of any riots or battles in Yokodo?"

The smile came into her eyes again. "No, they have not. So you stopped the riots singlehanded, yourself and Master Hiko?"

"Simply delayed them. They will come, eventually."

"That's very sad. It's the innocent who will die and the evil men who will prosper. I begin to think Edo is less of a bad place than I believed, in comparison. Don't you find it contradictory, however, to kill in order to save lives?"

"There is nothing else a swordsman can do. Murder is the only craft you can practice with a sword. But if we are going to murder, we can at least let it be with respect, and for justice."

"If you can discover what justice truly is," she said, and he realized, with a sense of shock, that she really did mean to _talk_ with him. She questioned him further, about the Hiten Mitsurugi principles, about the Noguchigumi, and about his travels. Then she turned the conversation to less serious matters, and they discussed the qualities of good sake, the nature of childhood, whether education was necessary for women, what was superstition and what was truly from the gods, and a dozen other things. Every time he thought that surely they had exhausted all topics, something one or the other of them said led them off on another tangent. He'd never had anyone listen to him with such attentiveness and such intelligence, and he'd never had a woman point out illogical thinking on his part or argue a point with him. His sensitive pride would have suspected that she was humoring him, but her enthusiasm was too spontaneous, surely, to be false. Nor did she practice any of the alluring arts he'd seen used by the other teahouse women. She sometimes frowned, she watched his face carefully when he spoke instead of demurely lowering her eyes, and she only smiled when honestly amused. Nor did she laugh at him again. By the time she pointed out that they had been sitting there for several hours and that she had to go back to work, he'd gone from feeling like a boor to feeling that he was actually an interesting man.

He went looking for his master in something of a daze, so that on the way back to their boarding house he answered Hiko entirely at random and earned himself a cuff on the head.


	2. Chapter 2

Consider the usual disclaimers made, OK?

To answer a couple of my (very kind!) reviewers...

Jason mentioned that the city's name is more accurately Edo, and this is quite true. I used Tokyo because I'm more familiar with the post-Meiji name and it felt more comfortable. Gomen for any confusion my laziness causes, and I have changed it in this chapter. And I might as well admit that I use "first /family" name order because, being American, I'm also more familiar with that, but I'm sticking with it. As for why they aren't sticking closer to Kyoto, I've made the (perhaps arrogant) assumption that they travel quite a bit. It's how I figure they keep aware of what's going on in Japan.

And to Naomi, I deal further with that aspect of the geisha life in Hikaru's stories, so she thanks you for your interest. It is a _major_ reason why she cares so much for Hiko. Incidentally, pretty much all I know about geishas I got from "Memoirs of a Geisha", supplemented with a bit of online research. Any mistakes are solely my fault.

For the rest of you, thank you for your kindness and interest. I trembled, placing a fic here at ff.net ~ I'd heard reviewers can be pretty ruthless. What a pleasant surprise to have such nice comments!

OK, enough babble, on with the story.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

      The sky was already starting to lighten with the dawn when Hikaru returned home. Her maid was drowsy, but not so much that she didn't notice Hikaru's smile. "You look happy, Hikaru-san. You must have had a very successful night."

      Successful? Not really, but it had been a good one. Dressed in a loose robe, she sat before her mirror and cleaned her face, working carefully so as not to stretch her skin, and all the while thinking about the young man she'd met. He had cost her hours of time that she'd had to make up, so she would get little sleep today. Had it been worth it?

      She decided that it had. He had seemed such a boy at first, and she'd thought only to amuse herself while she took a short tea break. Although not much older than him in years, she knew herself vastly older in experience, and she'd been able to manipulate him with eyes and smiles just as she could any other young man (and most older ones as well). But she was observant, and she quickly realized that to take him less than seriously simply because he was young would be to underestimate him. His black eyes, so sharp and intense, had seen death and dealt it out. He parroted his master's philosophies, but he'd also thought them through and met every challenge to them that she'd thrown at him. Furthermore, although she knew very well that he'd lied when he said he didn't think her pretty – in some ways he was transparent as glass – he had been able to set that aside and talk to her as if she'd been another man. Having an opportunity to discuss something freely with a man, without worrying about how she was presenting herself or about earning her fee, had been pleasant, but to do so with a mind and will as strong as Kakunoshin Niitsu's had been exciting.

      In fact, she realized, tonight was the first time since her early childhood that, at least for a short time, she hadn't felt alone. That was a pleasure which could easily become addictive.

      Somehow she knew that she would see him again, although she had no rational reason to believe it. He'd given no indication that their hours together had been anything more than a single interlude in a busy life. But she believed in fate, and she had a strong feeling Niitsu might be bound up with her life in some way. Therefore she was not surprised to meet him again at a crowded party at the Asari teahouse a few days later.

      She was alerted to his presence, not by some special awareness, but by her best friend, Umeko, who came up to her, wound an affectionate arm around her waist, and said into her ear, "Who is that pretty young man that keeps _staring_ at you?"

      She turned her head, and there he was, standing near the door which led out to the gardens, with his arms folded across his chest, looking as if he were bored and brooding. As soon as their eyes met, he left. She turned back to Umeko. "I wouldn't call him pretty."

      "You are too picky! And he's so romantic looking, too. Where do you know him from?"

      Umeko was a good-hearted woman, but she was also a silly one, and she didn't know how to hold her tongue. Hikaru said, "I don't know him. I have no idea why he was staring at me."

      But Umeko wasn't _that_ silly. "So you are going to be mysterious. Is he your boyfriend?"

      "Umeko! As if I would do anything so foolish, when Mr. Nakatoni is so good to me."

      "But Nakatoni-san is in the country now, isn't he, and not here in Edo?"

      She rapped Umeko's cheek with her fan. "Stop being naughty. You have a wicked mind. Look, Mr. Hamada has an empty sake cup and is looking for you to fill it for him. How can you be so neglectful?"

      Umeko laughed and left her.

      She had promised to stay at this party for two hours, and she waited until exactly the end of that time. When she bowed herself out, therefore, no one wondered at it. Her evenings were always full. However, when she left, anyone except Umeko would have wondered at the direction she took, because instead of leaving the Asari teahouse and moving on, she borrowed a tea table and some sake from the teahouse mistress, using the excuse of a headache, and went out into the garden. She lit several lamps, careful to choose colors which suited her, and turned to find him standing there. She gave a little start. "You move very quietly!"

      He took the last lamp from her hand and hung it. "No, I don't. You make enough noise to drown the approach of an army."

      "You are too severe! I will not let you talk to me as if you were my master and I an apprentice." That got a smile from him. Umeko was right, she thought. He was pretty, in a way. His nose and chin were too sharp for real masculine beauty, but he was tall, well built, and had a good strong jawline, beautiful eyes and a wide, attractive mouth. She held up the sake. "I brought an offering. I was only able to get one cup, however."

      "Why?"

      "If I asked for two, the servants would wonder about it. I don't want any gossip about me. It could hurt my reputation."

      "Very well. We'll share it."

      She wondered if he was aware of the flirtatious, even seductive, connotations of a man and a woman sharing a single sake cup. She couldn't tell, looking at his expression as he sat. But when she poured and he took the cup from her, she decided he didn't. He acted as if it were a perfectly natural thing, handing it back to her, and made no attempt to touch her hands. She let her eyes smile at him. "What shall we talk about tonight?"

      "Can I ask you a question?"

      "Yes, but I don't promise to answer it."

      "Why did you become a geisha?"

      She was so startled by the directness of the question that it took her a second before she said breezily, "I don't have long to stay this evening. Not long enough to tell you my life story."

      "I didn't ask for your life story. I just wondered why you do this. If you don't want to tell me, say so. I won't be offended."

      "You know, I believe you are the rudest man I've ever met."

      "I can't possibly be. Besides, I'm not rude. I'm simply honest."

      "I see. To put it very simply, I became a geisha because it was a much better life than what I had. It was certainly better than starving to death, which was what I believed would happen to me."

      "Believed?"

      "Now that I have more experience with life, I know there were many things worse than starving, waiting for me back then."

      "How old were you when you made that decision?"

      "Seven."

      _"Seven?"_

      She grinned. She loved startling him out of that mask he wore. "That was when I started my training. Naturally I did not become a geisha, or even an apprentice geisha, for many years. It's not so unusual, you know. I'm sure becoming a geisha is at least as difficult, in its own way, as becoming a swordsman. How old were you, when you apprenticed to Master Hiko?"

      "Eight."

      "There, you see? Did you also become an apprentice as an alternative to starving?"

      "No. Master Hiko would tell you it was as an alternative to robbing and killing, but that's not what it was."

      He could startle her, too. "Robbing and killing?"

      He nodded.

      "I think the story of your life would be much more interesting than mine."

      "I doubt it."

      "But you say your master was wrong? That wasn't why?"

      "No. It was as an alternative to ignorance. He could do something that I wanted to do. I'd never seen anything like it before, and I wanted to learn. It was that simple."

      "So you gave up the robbing and killing, not out of some qualm of conscience, but out of a desire to learn to kill in a better manner?"

      He laughed. "Conscience may have been a part of it," he admitted. "And if I do kill, it's at least for a better reason now. Are you cold?"

      "No. It's your words that make me shiver."

      "I'm sorry. I thought you preferred the truth."

      "I do. Just not, perhaps, all of it."

      "You're a hypocrite."

      "Indeed I am, and a well-trained one, too! What else is a geisha?" When he stopped laughing, she added tartly, "And I told you not to talk to me as if I were your apprentice," which made him laugh again. She couldn't remember ever having a conversation like this one, so free and unpredictable. In comparison, the party she had just left seemed dull, and the one she was supposed to go to next, unbearably dull.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

      Hikaru was wrong about one thing. Although Niitsu had no idea of the more formal aspects of sharing a sake cup with a woman, he definitely recognized the flirtatious part of it. After Hikaru dismissed him, he walked almost half a mile before his knees would behave themselves properly.

      He got to the boarding house in what he thought would be plenty of time – after all, he'd only spent about half an hour with Hikaru – but his Master was already back, in the room's only chair, his sword across his knees, carefully cleaning the shining steel with oiled paper. "Where have you been?" he asked, predictably, sounding irritated but not yet angry.

      Niitsu never once thought of lying to him. "At a teahouse, I forget which one."

      "Doing what?"

      "Talking to a girl."

      "One of the maids, I suppose."

      "No, a geisha."

      The white eyebrows rose, then came down. "I thought you gave that up."

      "Gave up geisha? I never started them, to give them up."

      "No, gave up thieving."

      "I didn't steal anything!"

      "I know damned well you don't have enough money to afford to spend time with one of those women."

       Now that he knew he wasn't in trouble, Niitsu dropped onto the floor at his Master's feet. "I didn't have to pay anything."

      "You know, I would say you were lying, but if you were, you would never have put yourself within my reach. So tell me how you managed this wonder."

      "There's no wonder. She was taking a break, and she likes to talk to me." He hoped he wouldn't have to mention the sake.

      "You've met her before?"

      "Just once. The night you met with Iwasaki-san."

      Hiko grunted and turned his attention back to the sword. The folded paper slid along the blade with sure, familiar strokes. "So." _Slide._ "I've never found your conversation to be that interesting, but most of those girls are ignorant." _Slide._ "Which girl was it?"

      "Her name is Hikaru." He had to work hard to keep his tone normal. The name had taken on a magical quality for him, which he considered idiotic himself and he knew would make his Master laugh.

      "Hikaru? Are you sure?"

      "That's what she said, and my hearing is perfectly good."

      That earned him a cuff on the head for impertinence, but it was worth it. "Is she a tall girl?" Hiko demanded.

      "Yes, I suppose she is. Why?" _Now_ what had he done wrong?

      His Master made an odd, choked sound, and he buried his face in one hand. Niitsu thought, for one horrible moment, that his Master was having some kind of seizure. Then he realized Hiko was laughing. The laugh became a guffaw, then an all-out belly laugh. "Only you," Hiko said when he'd regained control of his voice. "Only you could wander off to look at the moon and end up drinking sake, for free, with one of the premier geisha of Edo."

      "How did you know about the sake?"

      "You reek of it, you idiot."

      "Is she? An important geisha, I mean."

      "You are so ignorant. If you used your ears half as much as your mouth, you would have heard of her."

      He shrugged. "Well, she's nice enough, I suppose."

      That set his Master off laughing again. Offended, Niitsu rose and stalked to the other side of the room.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

One more chapter to come! But "our" Hiko doesn't fare too well in it...


	3. Last chapter

I learned a lot about Japanese swords, thanks to Jason's links, so I made a minor but significant correction in Chapter 2. I'm more accustomed to Western swords, and now I know why Japanese swords are considered superior!

This chapter is still rated PG, but I should warn you there are a couple of bad words in it.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

      The move felt right. No, it felt perfect. Niitsu was sure he'd never done it better. He regained his balance easily and lifted his sword in the same smooth movement to counter his Master's response, ready to translate this energy into his next attack.

      But his lifted sword was resisting nothing. His Master had stepped back and lowered his own sword. At his left shoulder, the cloth of his shirt was torn and darkening with spreading blood. "Master!"

      Master Hiko glanced down at the wound, then back at his apprentice. "Not bad."

      "Not bad? It was great! But you're bleeding!"

      "It's a scratch. Don't get conceited."

      "We should bandage it."

      He should have known better. The reward for his sympathy was a blistering series of attacks from his Master which drove him all the way to the other side of the inn's small courtyard, until, panting, his back was against the wall. He didn't need his Master's grin to tell him he was an idiot, because half his range of movement was now gone. He dropped his sword point as if he were going to aim for his Master's knee, but instead of thrusting he kept dropping, hit the ground, rolled, and came up again in a better position – only to fall when the flat of his Master's sword hit him on the back before he'd quite recovered his stance.

      "Not a bad idea," Master Hiko said, stepping back again, "but you're too big and too slow for a trick like that."

      "I was desperate," he admitted.

      "You weren't watching where you were going," his Master said, sheathing his sword.

      "No, sir, I was watching you."

      "You'll have to develop better eyes. But I think that's enough for right now." Hiko stripped off his shirt and wet it at the well, wiping the blood from his chest. "Not too bad," he murmured again. "I'd say this was a sake occasion, but you've had entirely too much sake recently. However, I'll let you have the rest of the day for a holiday, to do what you please. Take some money with you, go into town or something."

      This was such a rare treat that Niitsu's jaw dropped.

      Master Hiko added sternly, "But stay away from the teahouses! And be back before dark."

      Niitsu bowed, cleaned and sheathed his sword, and left in a hurry before Master Hiko changed his mind.

      The day was perfect. Even the weather was cooperating, with a bright sun and a breeze to cool it. He had an afternoon's holiday, a little money, he'd just broken through his Master's guard, and he might get to see Hikaru.

      He wasn't exactly disobeying Master Hiko by seeing Hikaru. He wasn't going anywhere near the teahouses. Last night Hikaru had mentioned that she was going shopping, beginning on the Street of Cranes where she wanted to buy a new fan. She had also mentioned, at another time in their conversation, that like most geisha she rarely rose early. He hoped to catch her there and perhaps be allowed to escort her for the rest of her shopping.

      The fanmaker hadn't seen her yet, so he bought something to eat – he was always hungry, it seemed – and positioned himself in the restaurant where he'd be sure to see her pass by. He'd barely finished eating when he saw her, in the company of another woman, laughing and looking very different and even more beautiful without the full regalia of the geisha. He fished for the money to pay for his meal, his mind on how he was going to get rid of the other woman, but as it turned out, the two separated at the fanmakers' and Hikaru went in alone.

      She was delighted to see him when she came out, and spread her new fan for him to admire. In turn, she admired his accomplishment of the morning (he left the blood out of the account, in order to spare her feelings) and invited him to go with her for a walk along the river. By now, much less ignorant, he knew he was being granted an honor, but he wasn't about to gratify her vanity by letting her see that, so he pretended to ponder whether he had enough time to spare until she laughed, realizing his game.

      He had no idea exactly where the river was, so, with one hand resting lightly on his arm, Hikaru guided him there.  He was expecting what he normally saw at riversides, and was a little bemused that she'd actually want to walk there, but in Edo, what she called a river was nothing more than a wide stream, and the banks had been carved back, flattened, landscaped with lush grass and paths, and planted with trees which, old now, overhung the water and gave shade to the paths. On such a fine day, they were only two among a large number of people walking there, anonymous, yet not crowded, so well laid out were the paths.

      He quickly realized that meeting Hikaru in the gardens of the teahouses was no coincidence. She loved gardens, and chattered away about those along the walkways, cooing over particularly pretty arrangements and showing him rare plants or lovely flowers that caught her eye. He listened with amused patience, and when his patience began to wear thin, he distracted her by pointing out the swans in an artificial lagoon. They stopped at a vendor where he spent a few more of his coins for food for the swans, and he watched her as she knelt at the edge of the bank, tossing the crumbs to the graceful birds in the hope that they'd approach her. While he watched, he realized something wonderful. In the hours that he had spent with her that day, he had slowly filled up with an emotion that he'd never experienced before, and it was only now that he was able to give it a name.

      He was happy.

      He'd been contented before, and satisfied, joyful, triumphant – any number of things that approached happiness. But until today, he'd never actually been _happy_, not once in his memory. Throughout the afternoon, as the unfamiliar feeling had stolen over him, he'd tested it as he might have tested a sore tooth, often and carefully, wondering what it was. But when she managed to coax a swan close, and it bit her, and she jumped up in alarm, almost lost her balance, and clung to his arm, laughing, he knew what it was. He was happy, and in that moment, he loved her for giving him such a gift.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

      "Are you paying attention?" Master Hiko snapped.

      "Yes, sir."

      Happiness, Niitsu was discovering, was a bit like having too much sake. The effects lingered into the next day, much more pleasant, but no less distracting to his training. However, if his Master discovered what he'd done yesterday, he knew he'd be in a lot of trouble, so he did his best to get his mind off Hikaru and back on his lesson.

      They were working with staffs this morning, for which he was grateful. Instead of gratitude, he should have felt suspicion, but he simply wasn't thinking clearly enough to wonder about it. All his concentration, or all that he could summon, was focused on learning what Master Hiko was trying to teach him.

      What he didn't realize was that his lesson this morning had nothing to do with staffs or even with the Hiten Mitsurugi style, at least not directly. He figured that out when, after a particularly deft turn, he saw Master Hiko's staff flicking upward from almost ground level and realized it was going right between his legs.

      He had no idea how long it took him to come back to some knowledge of himself as separate from black waves of pain. He'd never felt pain like that in his life, so intense that it consumed him. He didn't even know, for some time, exactly where he'd been hit to cause such agony, until it finally faded enough for him to realize he was laying on the ground of the courtyard, his hands – which didn't need consciousness to know what to do – cradling where it hurt.

      Hiko was squatting over him, watching him with amused interest. Niitsu sucked in a breath, then another. When he thought he could open his mouth without throwing up, he said savagely, "You son of a _bitch!"_

      Hiko laughed. "I told you to pay attention."

      Niitsu spit out dirt. He still couldn't move any other part of his body but his head. "I'm going to kill you."

      "Probably, some day. But not any time soon, at the rate you're going."

      "I'm going to do it as soon as I can get up, even if I have to bite you to death." He tested his arm, and his hand moved reluctantly from his crotch. Bracing it on the ground, he slowly started to lift himself, unsure if his legs would hold him, but doggedly determined not to lay there eating any more of the courtyard dust.

      As soon as his torso was about six inches off the ground, Hiko dealt him a sharp rap on the back of the head that flattened him again. "You think an enemy would let you get up? Hell, no. If I weren't your kind and thoughtful master, but a real opponent, I would have put my sword in your neck and you'd never recover to thank me for this lesson."

      The reply from his ungrateful apprentice was a string of imaginative curses from between clenched teeth.

      As if he weren't humiliated enough, Niitsu felt Hiko pat him on the head as if he were a dog. "You'll be all right. As you know, I have complete control over my weapon, whatever weapon I choose, so I didn't damage anything important."

      "I hope I get the chance to return this favor."

      "You won't. I pay attention, unlike my stupid apprentice. Didn't I tell you to keep your mind on your training and off women?"

      "What do women have to do with it?"

      "That was the point of the whole lesson, idiot. I'm not a fool. I know how you spent your free time yesterday afternoon."

      _Oh, shit._ "How?"

      "I always know what my stupid apprentice is doing. But in this case, it was easy. My hearing may be failing a bit, as you enjoy pointing out, but there's nothing wrong with my nose. You smelled of perfume when you came home, and when I went to the teahouses last night, the merest word brought me all the gossip I needed. You know, you should stay away from that woman. The man who's keeping her is not someone you want for an enemy."

      "Go to hell."

      "You know, you look dirty and hot," Hiko said pleasantly. He rose, went to the well, drew a bucket of cold water, and dumped it on his apprentice's head.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

      Master Hiko did not directly forbid his apprentice to see the geisha again. Niitsu was the best and most focused apprentice he'd ever had, but he was also fifteen years old. He couldn't be said to be just coming into his manhood, because he was such a big kid that girls had been making eyes at him since before he turned twelve, but Hiko was sure this was his first infatuation. Also, for all his obedience, Niitsu was strong-willed and hot-tempered, and if this were more than a passing fancy, it would be the path of wisdom to be careful in how he was handled. Therefore, he issued a (somewhat painful) reminder to Niitsu that morning, that he still had much to learn as an apprentice, lessons with which a woman could only interfere, but he gave no commands.

      The "lesson" kept Niitsu at the inn that night, but the next night he disappeared without saying where he was going. This didn't trouble Hiko, who knew he could find him easily enough. What his apprentice had not yet figured out was that there was a purpose to all these visits to men in Edo and other cities all around Japan. Thanks to them, and to favors owed by men whose lives he'd saved, there was little that went on in the entire country that Hiko didn't eventually hear about and understand, never mind within the city. Change was coming – Hiko could practically smell it on the wind. His apprentice would live in a world very different, and probably infinitely more chaotic, than his own. He wanted the boy prepared. He didn't want the Hiten Mitsurugi style to die with him because he failed this apprentice, too, even in the smallest way. He could feel his age catching up with him, and he wasn't sure he could train another. Nor did he think he could ever find another this promising.

      He wasn't going to have that potential tossed aside for a woman. But if, as he believed, this was simply a matter of lust, he would leave it to run its natural course. Hikaru was not a stupid woman, or she would never have gained her reputation. She wouldn't jeopardize her relationship with Genjo Nakatoni for a penniless boy, and soon she would make this clear to Niitsu and the whole thing would be over except the boy's ranting.

      This is what he believed. But he had not lived a long life by leaving things to chance, and he wanted to verify it. Therefore, he dropped in to the Peachtree teahouse and quietly listened until he discovered where Hikaru was that evening. After that, it was a simple matter to follow her until his stupid apprentice finally caught up with her.

      They were sharing sake at a table she'd set up in the garden, apparently quite at home with the ritual and with each other. The familiarity didn't alarm Hiko – that was part of what a geisha did, made men comfortable – but what he saw in his apprentice did. Even in the faint light from the moon and the paper lanterns, he could see a tension in Niitsu's shoulders and hands, an expression in his eyes and a way of pointing his nose, that he only saw when Niitsu was about to learn a new attack and was opening his mind to it totally. As if that weren't bad enough, the woman was sitting with her eyes fixed on his, employing none of the geisha arts which both attracted a man and at the same time kept him at arm's length. He understood, now, why Hikaru had risked Nakatoni's wrath by spending an afternoon in public with Niitsu. This had to be stopped, at once, not only for Niitsu's sake, but for hers.

      He slipped away and approached again in a more visible manner, through the garden. When they saw him, both rose and bowed, Niitsu with clumsy haste, Hikaru with grace. Hiko said a polite greeting to the geisha, then ordered his apprentice, "Go back to the inn and pack our things. We leave Edo tonight."

      "Master!"

      Hiko scowled and lied, "It has nothing to do with this. Do you think I have so little on my mind that I worry about your flirtations? Say goodbye to the lady and obey me."

      Under his eye they couldn't make much of a leavetaking, and he could see that it troubled both of them, but he didn't go away. Niitsu did a properly polite job of it, but then spoiled the effect by adding, "We come to Edo every few months, so I'll see you again soon."

      When he was gone, Hiko turned to Hikaru and said quietly, "He won't be back any time soon, Lady Hikaru, and perhaps not at all. He's at a particularly important part of his training right now. You understand, I hope."

      She turned large, dark eyes to him, eyes full of sadness. They were the kind of eyes poets talked about getting lost in, but at the same time childlike, with a child's acceptance of grief. She looked at him for a long moment, then said, "Yes, Master Hiko. I believe I do." Then she bowed and walked away, leaving everything behind her – the tea table, the sake, Master Hiko, and, he hoped, her affection for Niitsu.

      He threw the ends of his cape back, vaulted lightly over the low wall, and headed back to the inn. He had a feeling this would be the last time he saw Edo, and it was a bitter memory to carry away.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

This is the end of this particular story. I have more about this pair, though, if I get the _least_ encouragement. LOL!

Just as a side note, poor Niitsu's painful "lesson" was a bit of an indulgence for some friends of mine who find him almost too arrogant to bear. I suggested it jokingly, and they liked the idea, so... he got it. Ouch.


End file.
